Modern pharmaceutical discovery often involves assaying or screening immense collections of test compounds for their effects on specific target molecules. Combinatorial chemistry and associated technologies for generating molecular diversity have significantly increased the number of test compounds available for such screening. In addition, genomic research has uncovered vast numbers of new target molecules against which the efficacy of these test compounds may be screened. However, the search for lead compounds in the development of these new pharmacological agents is often impeded by the lack of sufficient throughput of many assays. Sources which limit throughput include the time and labor requirements associated with preparing each screen.
Microfluidic systems are one set of tools that have greatly augmented drug discovery processes. For example, certain multiplexed device formats that include many parallel reaction channels within a single chip are generally well suited to perform high numbers of simultaneous analyses. These assays typically involve introducing assay components, such as reagents and buffers, into the reaction channels via access ports also disposed in chip surfaces, but which directly interface with the external environment. As more complex channel networks have been incorporated into these microfluidic devices, these access ports have been drawn in closer proximity to one another. As a result, fluid introduction into these devices, whether accomplished manually using, e.g., a pipettor, or automatically using, e.g., a robotic fluid handling device, is often a laborious process that consumes significant amounts of time.
As a consequence, improved devices and methods of fluid delivery would be desirable. The present invention is directed to these and other features by providing high-throughput fluid manifolds and to methods of using the same. The invention also relates to methods of manufacturing manifold systems.
These and many other attributes will be apparent upon complete review of the following disclosure.